Backing Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur's call to carry out a social audit of the government, Congress on Sunday said that it was important to monitor the government.

"Well, the Chief Justice of India is right. The social audit of government's performance takes place only once in five years when the elections are held or if a government loses majority then may be earlier whenever elections are held," Congress leader Manish Tewari told news agencies.

"But there is a need to have round-a-clock monitoring of the government. There has to be accountability of the government and, therefore, perhaps the time has come because we live in a 24/7 media cycle .

Under these circumstances the social audit of the government on a continuing basis is an idea whose time has come," he said. On 27 February, Justice Thakur said that the time has come when a social audit of the governments should be done so that their performance is assessed.

Speaking at the state-level workshop organised at Jammu University, Justice Thakur said that there is a need for a social audit to probe the inordinate delays in implementing the laws and clearing the proposals